December 18, 2008
Vietnam's shrimp prices continue downward trend
Black tiger shrimps are currently sold at VND75,000 to VND80,000 and as a result, farmers in Bac Lieu are losing VND30,000 to VND40,000 per kilogramme on shrimps.
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) deputy minister Luong Le Phuong said shrimp consumption in the world has been decreasing sharply due to global recession.
Bac Lieu province has had good shrimp harvests but shrimp prices are also decreasing due to the frozen export markets.
Phuong said key markets like US and Japan have decreased considerably, while domestic shrimp material prices have dropped to its lowest in the past decade.
The decreasing shrimp material prices have also led to a big volume of unsold shrimp in Bac Lieu province.
The Bac Lieu People's Committee has urged local seafood processors to collect shrimp from farmers.
Many shrimp processing plants stopped collecting material shrimp while farmers still have to pay for high production costs to maintain their shrimp ponds.
This has pushed the production cost of one kilogramme of shrimp to VND80,000/kg (30 shrimp per kilogramme) which is equivalent to the current sale price.
